It comes after a precautionary boil water notice was put in place on Darlington’s drinking water on Tuesday February 1, 2022, following a fault at the company’s Broken Scar water treatment works which supplies water to the area.
Around 24,000 text messages and 14,000 emails were sent to affected customers and more than 30,000 boil notice leaflets were hand-delivered by employees through customer’s doors. Over 65,000 bottles of water were also handed out to the company’s priority services customers and to sites such as schools and nursing homes.
While incidents like this one are rare, the company wants to learn from it and will have a team of people based in Darlington this weekend (26 and 27 February) to speak with affected customers and carry out research.
The company’s blue community vehicle ‘Flo’ will be located next to the Joseph Pease statue in Darlington town centre on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 February, 2022, between 9.00am and 5.00pm and customers are being encouraged to come along and provide feedback about the incident and the company’s response, and ask any questions they may have about what happened.
Employees of Northumbrian Water will be carrying out surveys with residents and as a thank you for their participation, a £1 donation will be made to a local charity for each survey completed.
The team will also be on hand to talk to customers about the financial support available for those worried about their bills, as well as signing eligible customers up to its free priority services register, which prioritises care to those who need it most during a water emergency.
For more information about the priority services, see www.nwl.co.uk/priorityservices